I was not there at that meeting.
And now as the person in charge, I must say something.

Not publicly disclosing that your about to do a hack on the group is just
wrong.

And this forum is open for anyone to talk about what goes on at a meeting.
If only one person knew about what you did, and never disclosed it, it would
have ended there.
And from what I understand is that the issue was brought up AT the meeting
with everyone.
That leaves it open to discussion here in this forum.
That thread was a good thread about ethical discloses and hacking.
Was the discussion slander towards Dan? no. From what I understand, it was
all true.

Thats my 2c.
-- Trevor Benedict



On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 12:02 AM, David Kaiser <[email protected]> wrote:

> To members of the "linuxusers" list...
>
> I feel obligated to explain the e-mail that I am replying to.  Several of
> you were in attendance at the SRCLE meeting on December 27, 2008, and
> witnessed first-hand the events which transpired.  Most of you read the
> discussion that started on December 28, 2008 where nearly all of us
> participated in an open discussion about the legality and ethics of
> someone who had attended that meeting.  We are now being accused of
> libel for because of statements made in these discussions on that e-mail
> thread.
>
> Our discussion on the mailing list starting December 28, 2008 has already
> helped many of our members understand the issues around MITM attacks,
> and I know several of you have talked to me at LUG meetings about things
> related to DNS security, and also many of you at SCALE this year went
> through the process of understanding SSL certificates and how they work.
>
> We encourage each of you to continue to ask questions about matters
> related to security and to continue to keep our forum and mailing list
> open and transparent as we have since we started.
>
> If you have questions related to this matter, please feel free to discuss
> or ask Roger or I.
>
> Thanks,
>
> David
>
>
> --- Original Message ---
> Date: 7/20/2009
> From: "Roger E. Rustad, Jr." <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: SocalLinux.org public forum messages
>
>
> Dan,
>
> On 7/13/09, you accused David and me of libel and threatened legal action
> if
> we did not remove specific verbiage from the email thread "Dan Tentler's
> script kiddie antics last night" beginning 12/27/08.
>
> In response to your email, David and I would like to confirm the following
> set of events and remind you of what went on on the evening of 12/27/08 at
> It's a Grind coffee shop in Murrieta, CA.
>
> On 12/27/08,
>
> --you attended a SoCal Linux user group ("LUG") meeting at It's a Grind
> Coffee in Murrieta, CA.
> --you interfered with the regular and expected usage of the wireless
> router
> provided by It's A Grind Coffee with full knowledge that LUG members (and
> other It's A Grind patrons who were not LUG members) were connected to
> and
> using the wireless router.
> --you issued false ARP update statements, for the purpose of spoofing all
> users of the router to use your Macbook as the router, and you did not
> disclose to the users of the wireless network that you were doing this
> spoofing
> --since your Macbook was the proverbial "man in the middle" of all
> communications at that point, you used a program, such as ettercap plus
> additional tools, to capture TCP packets which were passing through the
> spoofed network, and you did not disclose to the users of the wireless
> network that you were capturing their information contained in the TCP
> packets.
> --you ran a program, such as ettercap plus additional tools which were
> designed to intercept connections on the spoofed network and interfered
> with
> the operation of secure socket layer (SSL) communications by issuing fake
> SSL certificates to the requester, and you did not inform the users of the
> wireless network that you were issuing fake SSL certificates to them.
> --you used these software programs and tools to issue a LUG member a fake
> SSL certificate for talk.google.com, and you did not inform this LUG
> member
> that you were responsible for issuing a false SSL certificate for
> talk.google.com.
> --by impersonating the secure site 'talk.google.com' (by issuing a
> false SSL
> certificate for talk.google.com), you obtained and stored information,
> including a password from a person whose system was signing on to
> talk.google.com, and you did not immediately disclose to this person that
> you had intercepted his personal information
> --you ran a program, Nessus, which is designed to find exploitable
> openings
> in a remote system, and targeted this Nessus program against customers in
> It's A Grind coffee shop, including LUG members, and you did not inform
> anyone that you were running Nessus scans against their laptops.
>
> --From 12/28/08 until 7/13/09 (the date you emailed David Kaiser and me
> and
> threatened legal action), you did not publicly address the LUG's
> collective
> concerns about capturing members' (and possibly nonmembers') private and
> personal information.
>
> Please be advised that...
>
> --we discuss many issues publicly on the Socallinux.org listserv. This is
> typical for a LUG to do, as one of the purposes of a LUG is to provide
> educational value for its members, and to communicate with openness and
> transparency.
> --listserv discussions may be searchable via search engines, such as
> Google,
> as we do not block search engines with robots.txt
> --discussions regarding security are often done online.  LUG members use
> the
> listserv to exchange information and learn about all issues regarding
> their
> computers, including discussions in areas of security.
> --SoCal Linux has freely discussed the events which happened when you
> visited It's A Grind Coffee on the night of 12/27/08.
> --SoCal Linux has freely discussed the ethics of your actions on the night
> of 12/27/08.
> --SoCal Linux members, in general, have not considered your actions on the
> night of 12/27/08 a joke.
>
> Once again, we invite you to respond publicly to what several of us
> consider
> (at best) rude and (at worst) illegal. You are, in your words, a security
> expert, and as a security expert, we fully expect openness and
> transparency
> when dealing with our group (something many of us do not feel that you did
> on the evening of 12/27/08).
>
> You claim that we have committed libel, yet you have failed to demonstrate
> the untruthfulness of our claims or explain how you are justified to seize
> someone else's password without their permission and not expect us to
> talk
> about it openly. Talking openly about this, we believe, helps others in
> our
> group understand the mechanics of your MITM attack (as what you did was
> not
> for the edification of the group), as well as the legal and ethical
> implications of performing this procedure without the express permission
> of
> your target.
>
> Regards,
> Roger and David
>
> On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 12:54 PM, Dan Tentler <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >  Hi David, Roger,
> >
> >  It's been 3 days and I haven't heard from you at all.
> >
> >  I wanted to inform you that portions of whats posted on
> socallinux.orglegally qualify as libel:
> >
> >  Rogers comments:
> >
> >  (a) Not formally and publicly disclosing that he was using Backtrack to
> > sniff other members' traffic.
> > (b) Not immediately getting rid of another member's gmail password once
> > he handed out a fake certificate and sniffed it with Ethereal.
> > (c) Doing what he was doing secretly, rather than for the edification of
> > the group
> >
> >
> >
> >  And your comments:
> >
> >  When Dan set out to steal people's passwords...
> >
> >
> >  Both of these blocks of text contain statements made by yourself and
> Roger
> > which are both untrue, and at best are speculation.
> > This libel has come up in my day-to-day business. It has already cost me
> > one client.
> >
> > As such I am giving you one week from today to remove the libel from your
> > site.
> >
> > If after one week I am still able to access these threads publically I'll
> > be coming back with with an attourney and taking this as far as the law
> will
> > let me.
> >
> > If this matter is not resolved by 7/20, my next communication will be to
> > the both of you, via registered mail.
> >
> > -Dan Tentler
> > CEO, AtenLabs
> >
> >
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